


An Observation of a Captain outside his Native Environment

by Project0506



Series: Soft Wars [6]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Brothers, Brothers being assholes, Clones, Everything is Beautiful and Nothing Hurts, Gen, Humor, gen - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-02
Updated: 2020-04-02
Packaged: 2021-02-23 10:48:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23443591
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Project0506/pseuds/Project0506
Summary: There's an image among the shinier brothers of the Indomitable Captain Rex, Suave Space Hero of Space.Jesse knows better.  Oh, does he know better!  He has evidence to prove it, but it'll cost you.
Relationships: CT-5597 | Jesse & CT-7567 | Rex, Implied pre Rex/Kit Fisto
Series: Soft Wars [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1683775
Comments: 59
Kudos: 741





	An Observation of a Captain outside his Native Environment

**Author's Note:**

> Hello lovely people! Apologies for the wait. I'd written this, or an incarnation of this, last night and was supremely unhappy with it. I decided to sleep on it and it was a good thing I did. I ended up gutting everything after paragraph 4 and completely redoing where the fic was heading. In the process, Kit showed up, gently shooed away the OC who'd been there originally and moved in. So that happened.
> 
> This fic was born because of a trend I noticed in my writing to put Rex in situations where he's Clearly In Charge, and naturally he comes across as the galaxy's most competent stud. But, gentlebeings, let's be honest. In canon, when Rex is out of situations with Clearly Preplanned Variables, Rex is a bit of a disaster bean. So please join me in catching a glimpse of the Rex Jesse knows.
> 
> Oya Torrent!
> 
> Mando'a translations are included in the end notes, with links to take you back to where you were. Mando'a definitions from [mandoa.org](http://mandoa.org/).
> 
> Teeny tiny edit to preserve internal consistency in what ranks everyone is.

“It’s like a six speeder pile-up,” Echo breathes in horrified awe, “and I can’t look away from the rain of bleeding limbs.”

Jesse glances over at the two younger troopers. “Fives. Comm.”

Fives smacks blindly at the comm control on his bracer and the high pitched tea-kettle squeal from his bucket cuts off. He’s still swaying on his feet though, and Jesse vaguely wonders if he’s going to run out of air and what anyone would expect Jesse to do about it if he did.

It’s not an unreasonable reaction, however. These shinies only know Rex as the dashing, heroic captain that swept in to their rescue at the most dramatic moment, then swept them all away with him to Grand Adventures. They’ve only seen him professionally, always in control of every situation, equally calm in the face of requisition forms and firefights. They’ve seen him interact with superiors and troopers under his command, and they think they have his measure.

But Jesse? Jesse’s seen things; many, many things. Jesse knows the truth. Rex knows how to talk to brothers and he knows how to accept orders from superiors. In literally any other circumstance? Rex is really, secretly, an actual disaster of a human being.

Jesse wishes he’d had some head’s up; he’d have cleaned _barracks_ on betting.

“Uh yes well. You uh. Fight good. Very. Efficient. Sir.”

“Do you really think so?” High General Fisto beams brightly and Jesse can actually see Rex’s nervous swallow, never mind he’s armored up. “I’ve had quite a few of my peers lament that my style is particularly flashy. Though,” he says with a humored side eye, “I don’t suppose I could compete with General Skywalker in that field, hmm?” He casually rests a hand on Rex’s rerembrace.

It’s a simple gesture, one Jesse’s seen repeated by frontline Jedi like Vos and Kenobi among themselves and their troops. Far as Jesse can figure, it’s basically like a friendly Jedi hello. Not something Skywalker does, though, so not something Rex has a trained response to.

The captain’s vocoder buzzes loudly for a solid eight seconds, unable to parse whatever words it was he’d just tried to make.

“Force,” Echo whimpers and taps his left bracer twice, praying a fervent ‘Kot1’. Jesse, companionably, follows suit. Fives is still too busy trying to remember how breathing works.

“I’ve heard many good things about your own combat skills, captain. Your troopers are quite complimentary. Would you be willing to indulge me in a spar? In say, half an hour? Hand-to-hand only, naturally, and I can promise I won’t go easy on you.”

At some point during their last sortie, General Fisto had managed to lose his tunics. Solid, tight swimmer’s muscles span his arms and pectorals, slightly goosepimpled from exertion and the cooling evening air.

Huh. Nautolani don’t have nipples. You learn something knew every cycle.

“Echo,” Jesse mutters quickly, because there’s ‘watching your commander stumble awkwardly through a social situation’ and there’s ‘watching your commander low-key eye-frip a droplet of sweat working it’s way down a visiting Jedi general’s naked chest’. He’s not on the rabid Shiny Protection Squad that Kix and the captain have going on, but he has _some_ morals. “Go make sure Fives doesn’t pass out.”

The private cannot salute quickly enough and hauls swaying his brother double-time in the opposite direction. Weak. You don’t get good blackmail retreating like that, these shinies clearly have all the wrong instincts. How could they pass up an opportunity like this? Clearly their dear captain Rex is in desperate need of a caring, considerate brother right now. The type of caring, considerate brother that is not at all opposed to being owed favors. What good fortune that Jesse’s _just_ such a brother!

“Apologies General,” he calls when it becomes entirely obvious Rex’s mental processing is overclocking just parsing the fine details of General Fisto’s _fine_ abdomen and there’s no bandwidth left to run his biological vocoder. “The captain asked me to bring him the after action ASAP sir.”

Rex’s support hand’s fingers twitch in the battlefield acknowledgment of a rescue received. It’s good to be appreciated.

General Fisto heaves a sigh, though it doesn’t seem too overly disappointed. A man delayed, not thwarted. “Ah yes I’d also heard much of how diligent he is. Another time then, captain.” He says ‘captain’ like a caress. Rex makes a noise like he’s simultaneously trying to say ‘yes sir’ and ‘understood’ and ‘acknowledged’ and it all comes out rough and cracked.

In fact, the captain’s voice sounds quite a bit like a man _dying of thirst_. What good fortune he has such a caring, considerate brother close at hand! Jesse’s grin grows to such shit-eating proportions, it’s a wonder it fits under his bucket.

“Actually, General,” he says and Rex _freezes_. Horror-holo slowly, his bucket turns to sight Jesse’s. Jesse’s a forward planner though, and is already standing safely outside of lunging range. “Alpha shift command staff will be on standdown as of lastmeal, medical’s orders. I can deliver him back to you then. 19th hour? Standdown’s scheduled for the full night cycle.”

“Wonderful!” General Fisto cheers, and Jesse knows instinctively that it’s that fine-boned hand still so casually possessive on Rex’s rerembrace that’s the only thing standing between him and a headlock of painful proportions. Fisto's voice lowers to something private and promising. “I’ll be looking forward to it. Until then, captain. Lieutenant.”

Rex tries to shut off comms, but manages instead to flip to in-bucket comms only. Regardless, the general never has to know about the high pitched mewl of pure distress Rex vocalizes when the Jedi presses fingers against that slight bit of bicep that shows between their pauldrons and rerembrace in a silent goodbye. At least, he’ll never know if Jesse doesn’t tell him. But Jesse was also recording both their in-bucket comms and his own forward vis sensor, so who even knows what the future holds.

There’s a second of peace balanced on a knife’s edge as the general leaves, sketching quite the lovely picture as he goes.

“Lieutenant,” Rex says evenly, fully The Captain again once there’s enough of an air gap between him and the Jedi for his brain to resume efficient operations.

“Captain,” Jesse replies sweetly.

Rex’s helmet nods casually in his direction. “Run.”

Jesse’s a forward planner, so he’s already running.

Worth it.

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. Strength. If this is your first time dabbling in this little universe of mine, know that this is an in-joke that started [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23407009). Back  
> You know that 'hand resting gently on rerembrace' thing? The one Jesse thinks is just a friendly Jedi hello? It's not. It's really not.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Promotion Cycle Performance Review](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23543083) by [Project0506](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Project0506/pseuds/Project0506)
  * [Effective Contingency Planning](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23609746) by [Project0506](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Project0506/pseuds/Project0506)




End file.
